Fall Premier Auction 2019

Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown signs this Certificate of Merit for "Excellence in Umpiring" as a member of the National Semi-Pro Baseball Congress, representing his hometown of Terre Haute, Indiana. The black fountain pen signature is a perfect 10/10 example and presents boldly despite the imperfect condition of the certificate itself, which shows significant yet visually unobtrusive creasing and paper loss on the right border. Mordecai Brown's microscopic 2.06 lifetime E.R.A. would make him a guaranteed first-ballot Hall of Famer today, but Cooperstown didn't come calling for him until 1949, a year after his death. This posthumous induction, partnered with a career that ended in 1916, has led to a very limited supply of autographs from Brown. This is among the best of only a tiny handful of Mordecai Brown signatures we’ve seen offered in recent years. Includes full letter of authenticity from Beckett Authentication.